Hardik Pandya on his Mumbai Indians (MI) captaincy debut won the toss and opted to bowl first against Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans (GT) at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Pandya handed debut caps to Naman Dhir, Shams Mulani, South Africa's Gerald Coetzee and England's left-arm pacer Luke Wood.
“We are gonna bowl first. Looks like a decent track, might get better if dew comes. Feels good to be back. My birthplace is in Gujarat, very grateful to this state. My cricketing birth happened in Mumbai, happy to be back. It's been two weeks we started the camp. Boys are eager to perform. We had wonderful practice matches. The excitement is a different feeling. We have four quicks, three spinners and seven batters. Making sure all the departments are looked after,” Pandya said after winning the toss.
Three debut caps were handed in GT camp. Australia's Spencer Johnson, Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai, and Indian pacer Umesh Yadav.
“Feels exciting to captain in a stadium where I have enjoyed a lot of success. The support has been tremendous. I was a week prior before this game, played a practice match. We have got three players making debuts for GT - Umesh, Johnson and Omarzai,” Gill said at the coin toss.
MI Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood
GT Playing XI: Shubman Gill (c), Wriddhiman Saha(wk), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Spencer Johnson
GT vs MI head-to-head
GT and MI have gone up against each other on four occasions. Both teams have two wins against each other. In their last clash, GT beat MI by 62 runs at their homeground.
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